Steady start in Switzerland for Tvesa Malik

Holzhausern (Switzerland), September 10

Tvesa Malik continued her good run, carding 1-under 71 but fellow Indian golfer Diksha Dagar stumbled on a horrendous 15-over 87 on the opening day at the VP Bank Swiss Ladies Open here on Thursday.

Tvesa, who has displayed steady form in recent weeks, shot a no-frills round to be tied-19th with many players still on the course at Golfpark Holzhausern.

In contrast, Diksha's struggles continued as she started with a birdie but then dropped six bogeys, three double bogeys and a quadruple bogey during a horror opening day.

With fans coming in for the first time, local star Kim Metraux, one of the two sisters in the field, carded a 6-under 66 to take sole lead, two ahead of Norwegian Tonje Daffinrud, who was 4-under with two holes to play.

Also at 4-under was Sanna Nuutinen, winner last week at the LET Access Tournament in Switzerland. Sanna had three more holes to play.

Tvesa continued with her liking for Par-3 as both her birdies came on them. She birdied the Par-3 4th and Par-3 15th, while she dropped a shot on Par-4 13th.

"The Par-5s are a bit tricky so I played safe today. I did have a couple of other birdie chances but couldn't get the putts to roll in," said Tvesa.

"To be honest it was not my best hitting. Today I was a little off with my irons, so I need to go and work on that before I head back to my room."

Once again Tvesa avoided using a caddie. She said, "I am using a trolley this week."     

Many players are doing likewise. Tvesa had finished tied-20th at Czech Ladies Open and tied-fourth at the Flumserberg Ladies Open.

Welsh golfer, Becky Morgan shot a 3-under 69 and fellow Welsh player, Amy Boulden was also 3-under but after 16 holes. Leader Kim's sister, Morgane Metraux carded a par 72. PTI